The U.S. Division of Vitality will turn into a “one-stop-shop” for permits for brand new electrical energy transmission initiatives underneath a rule introduced by the Biden administration at the moment. The transfer is meant to make constructing inexperienced vitality initiatives less complicated and quicker, Vitality Secretary Jennifer Granholm advised reporters.
The rule will create a brand new program, the Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorization and Permits (CITAP), which would be the lead company dealing with permits for brand new vitality initiatives. Candidates should put together solely a single environmental influence assertion for all their federal authorizations. The federal authorities will likely be required to reply to functions inside a set deadline.
That’s a marked distinction from the present course of, which requires a variety of permits from a wide range of companies, relying on the precise undertaking.
“CITAP goes to make the federal allowing course of for transmission infrastructure extra environment friendly and efficient,” mentioned Granholm. CITAP will assist vitality infrastructure builders meet the 91 gigawatts of demand progress anticipated within the subsequent decade.
CITAP will work in 3 ways:
- It positions DOE as the primary level of contact between builders and federal companies.
- It enforces a two-year deadline that units a binding schedule for federal companies to challenge all authorizations and permits.
- It requires all candidates to submit a public engagement plan that demonstrates how initiatives will influence Tribes, native communities and different stakeholders affected by new transmission traces.
“It is a big enchancment from the established order, as a result of builders routinely must navigate a number of unbiased allowing processes all through the federal authorities,” mentioned Granholm.
“Implementing a one-stop-shop for company critiques and setting strict deadlines for this course of will characterize a basic leap ahead from the present system, which requires candidates to juggle every company’s timeline individually and might generally delay a undertaking by years,” mentioned People for a Clear Vitality Grid govt director Christina Hayes in a press release on the CITAP proposal revealed in 2023.
The general public engagement facet will handle a longtime drag on the renewable vitality sector. Native opposition to new wind and photo voltaic farms is often led by a vocal minority, and 30 % of proposed initiatives are canceled because of this, in accordance with a survey by the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory.
The brand new rule comes on the identical day the Division of the Inside marks the activation of the Ten West Hyperlink transmission line from Arizona to California — the road will help the transmission of three,200 megawatts of photo voltaic vitality.
To date through the Biden administration, personal firms have invested $77 billion in clear vitality manufacturing and transmission.
